Event Post: Field Trip

[hadrielmods]

THE RUNDOWN

It's been pretty rough on the gods recently. Sorrow is dead, Fear used a ton of power to move the city, and Hope is still recovering from nearly dying himself. Oh, and Delight is imprisoned and nobody's happy about her betrayal. So, you know, things aren't awesome. And unfortunately, when things aren't awesome for the gods, things aren't really awesome for the inhabitants of Hadriel either. While the shops have food again, people's revivals aren't messed up anymore, and there's intermittent electricity, Hadriel still isn't a particularly comfortable place to live - and they're down two gods.

So Love has devised a plan to fix this, or at least some of it. On February 16th, Love will make an announcement to the network, asking the people of Hadriel to help. They need brave adventurers willing and able to travel across the surface of the planet and find other Hope temples. These travelers will take an orb along with them that, when left in another Hope temple, will absorb whatever remaining energy it can. Then they'll bring it back to the city, and Hope will take the power, using it to recover and give himself more energy to fix all these crappy things that have happened.

Of course, traveling across the planet won't be safe or easy, and certainly won't be fast. Tranquility will provide some hooded motorcycles, but this is still more of a marathon than a sprint - so it'll last for the rest of February and all the way through March. Your characters can leave for awhile, come back, and leave again if they wish, and meanwhile things will still be happening within the city. The effects of the god events that happen during this will be confined to the general area of the city, so leaving on one of these journeys is a simple opt-out method for any event going on at the same time.

THE DETAILS

There are 25 Hope temples scattered across the surface of the planet, some relatively near and some very far. They're all abandoned, and most have been destroyed or damaged in some way, since the Hope they were built for is now dead. Your character is free to journey to only one and return, or to go to many - they're also welcome to go alone or in groups. However, in order to let as many people as possible be involved, we ask that any given character or group collect no more than 2 orbs. For example, if your character is in a group that brings back one, they would only be able to collect one more, whether alone or with a different group - and the same thing would apply to all other members of that group.

The orbs need to be brought to the temples and placed on the altars inside for one week, during which they will absorb the energy of the temple. No one has to stick around while this happens, unless they're worried something might happen to the orb or temple - they're free to return to Hadriel, travel to another temple, or do whatever else they want. After a week the orbs will glow with a soft purple light, showing they are ready to be returned.

What effect these orbs have on the city and the gods depends on how many are collected. If five orbs are collected, Hope will be restored to a basic level of power. All shops, electricity, water, and resurrections will be as normal, and all the deals he's previously made will be restored. If ten orbs are collected, that'll give Hope the power to resurrect Sorrow. If fifteen orbs are collected, that'll give Hope enough of a boost to push all monsters away from the city - essentially starting fresh, so there would be no threats near or in the city until the Door opens again. At twenty orbs, Hope will be able to create a new type of housing for the city, which is getting a bit cramped. And at twenty-five orbs, Hope will freshen up the city, cleaning up the streets and the debris and damage from the Null attack as well as providing a feast for the inhabitants as a thank you. So reach for the stars, friends! Each tier reached receives all the benefits of the lower tiers.

In addition, for every orb returned, the people who participated in collecting that orb will receive a god blessing, though these will be limited, since Hope, Sorrow, and Delight are currently unable to provide blessings.

THE WORLD

All right, so you've decided to leave Hadriel and venture out across the surface of the world. What can you expect to find?

First, the journey. No matter where you go, the world is still mainly rocky desert with sparse plant life and pools of glittering water scattered here and there. There's not much variety on this world, which in some ways is good - and in others, well, not so much. There's no hunting to be found, only a few fish in the pools, and no edible vegetation, so make sure you pack enough supplies. Water is easy enough to find, though, and mostly has no special effects - mostly. (More on that later.) Your phones will still work, though the farther from Hadriel you get the spottier the service will be.

How will you find the other cities? Easy. Sort of. Love will provide anyone journeying with a small compass-like object. The arrow along the edge will lead you to a source of Hope energy at a temple within another city, and once the energy is collected it will lead you back to Hadriel. The terrain between can be difficult, even with Tranquility's motorcycles, with the rock sometimes giving way to difficult-to-navigate sand and the constant sun and heat. And, of course - the dust storms. Just like the one that crossed through the city last month, anyone journeying across the world might run into a dust storm that requires them to take shelter for a few days or risk being injured or lost.

While there are no creatures once you're far outside of Hadriel, there are still monsters just outside the city. They're only barely kept at bay by Hope's remaining powers, and they stay close because sometimes they're able to venture into the city, which is the only real source of food. So coming and going can be a little dicey, though once you're far enough away or inside Hadriel itself, you'll be fine. Gun those engines!

Okay, you made it to your destination. What are the cities and temples like? In a word: bad. This entire world was essentially destroyed by repeated Null attacks. The cities you'll visit are in various stats of destruction. Some look like Hadriel did at the beginning of the game, run-down and broken but with some usable buildings. Others are in better shape - and some have nearly been blasted from the surface of the planet, with only rubble remaining.

The god temples of other cities are in similar states. After all, as the gods have said many times, all the others of their kind are dead - including the Hopes whose temples you're visiting. Still, the compass will lead you to them, and an orb placed within the temple (or what remains of the temple) will collect what power remains. Of course, scattered around many of these temples will be pools of water. These pools will have an effect on you, just like they did when the city first arrived on this world. If you're running out of water and take a sip from a pool by a former Rage temple, well, expect to be in a pretty crappy mood for the rest of the day. But what can you do? Water's not always so easy to find.

Once your orb is a lovely purple color, it's time to go home. And that part actually might be sort of nice, because that orb? It's not totally effective at containing all that power. On the way home with a fully charged orb, anyone nearby will be occasionally suffused with strong feelings of hope. The world will seem brighter, things that you thought were impossible suddenly feel possible. Maybe it's time to confess your interest to your longtime crush, or start that project you've been thinking of, or just use that rush of energy to drive all night until you're too exhausted to see straight. It's a nice little boost at the end of your trip - or maybe it'll just cause more problems.

There will be two logs posted, one after Love's post and one at the beginning of March. Each will have different prompts, though you can feel free to plot using anything within this post, too. In addition, we'll have a number of slots for special individual (or group) events - 3 in February's log and 6 in March. If you are interested in getting one of these events for your character or a group they're part of, please comment here and let us know which month you'd like it for. We'll RNG to see who gets them, with a slight preference for people who haven't been heavily involved in game plots in the past.

Finally, this thread will be the place to drop a comment when your character(s) return with a powered-up orb. Please let us know when they do, so we can keep track of how many have been returned!

THE OVERVIEW

► February 16th: Love posts
► February 17th: The first log is posted
► March 1st: The second log is posted
► March 31st: Hope receives the power and begins to use it

Comments

[hadrielmods]

Your group will find a city unlike any of the others. This city is completely lacking rubble and destruction, as if the war passed it by - every building is perfectly intact. It is also utterly empty. There is no sign that anyone has ever lived there, even though the buildings are untouched, and no sign that any feet - Null or other - have walked the streets. The only places with any sense that something once lived there are the god temples, where you can feel echoes of the appropriate emotion.